One hot summer

"The city that works" hasn't for a long time, at least for a lot of music lovers. We've got one of the most vibrant club and music scenes in the world, but for decades Chicago's precious park property has been a no-trespassing zone for youth culture and the music that drives it.

All that may be changing. Last summer brought signs of life to the lakefront with an unprecedented series of deejay events in Grant Park. Imagine that: Underground dance music in the park. This in the same city that only a few years before had passed ordinances cracking down on rave parties, leaving a stigma that made it more difficult than ever for law-abiding fans, deejays and promoters to schedule events and bring out-of-town talent to Chicago. It was particularly insulting given that Chicago is recognized worldwide--everywhere, it seems, except for City Hall--as the home of house music, the city that had started it all.

Last summer's deejay series suggested that the city was finally recognizing its own. And this sum-mer, the series returns with an even stronger lineup that includes Chicago house giants Marshall Jefferson, Jesse Saunders, Maurice Joshua and Paul Johnson, plus Detroit techno guru Jeff Mills.

What's more, the city will permit major alternative-rock music festivals in Grant Park (Lollapalooza on July 23-24) and Union Park (Intonation Music Festival on July 16-17). That's a welcome about-face for a city that only a few years ago turned down proposed lakefront concerts by the Smashing Pumpkins and Grateful Dead spinoffs the Other Ones.

In addition, there will be a full slate of shows at a new 7,500-seat Lakefront Pavilion on Northerly Island, former home of Meigs Field, beginning June 24 with a concert by Chicago and Earth Wind & Fire. The city also has cleared the way for two major shows by Jimmy Buffett on Sept. 4 and 5 (the first-ever stand-alone concerts at Wrigley Field, according to a Cubs spokesman) and the Rolling Stones (Soldier Field, Sept. 10).

It's a good start, though the bookings at some of these events still leave something to be desired. I'm holding out hope that a few more must-see acts will be scheduled at Lollapalooza. Taste of Chicago still isn't what it could be. And the Northerly Island schedule so far is a major disappointment, in dire need of some vision and imagination that Clear Channel, the promoter entrusted with booking this prime space, has so far failed to demonstrate (Journey on July 16, Loggins and Messina on Aug. 4, Cinderella and Quiet Riot on Aug. 12).

Let's hope the bookings perk up, because these locations are potentially spectacular, a mix of stars, skyline and lakefront breezes that can't be matched anywhere else in the country. Radiohead still raves about its 2001 concert at Hutchinson Field at the south end of Grant Park (the same site as this year's Lollapalooza) as one of the most memorable of its career. Anyone who was there would have to agree. The shame of it is that it took so long for the city to allow similar events to take place. Now that they have, let's hope the promoters in charge of these events have the smarts to turn them into something truly memorable.

The backdrop for the summer concert season includes a potential war of attrition between the city's two biggest concert promoters: Clear Channel, which books Northerly Island as well as two other major outdoor venues (Tweeter Center in Tinley Park and Alpine Valley Music Theatre in East Troy, Wis.), and Jam Productions, which schedules most of the city's major indoor concerts. After a 2004 summer concert season that was generally regarded as disastrous for most promoters, and with Clear Channel putting its concert division on the sales block, this could be a make-or-break year for the nation's biggest tour promoter.

The success or failure of this summer's events could have a long-term effect on who books shows in this city and at what price. Ticket prices continued to climb last year, averaging more than $52 for major concerts, up from $26 in 1995. But the rate of growth has slowed, indicating that consumers may have had just about enough of overpaying for entertainment in soul-sucking environments such as hockey arenas and remote amphitheaters.

If nothing else, the settings for some of this summer's big concerts promise to be more fan-friendly than ever. Let's hope it's not an aberration, but the beginning of a trend.

Here are 10 of the summer's more intriguing outdoor bookings, arranged chronologically:

1. QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE

Part of a radio station-sponsored "block party" on the North Side, the Queens top a bill that includes Interpol and Hot Hot Heat. June 3 at New City YMCA, North & Clybourn, $15; Q101.com.